Braised Chicken With Artichokes and Olives

I didn't think it was possible to love artichokes more than I already did until I lived in Italy. There they harvest artichokes in both spring and fall, and that abundance graces their cuisine. Artichokes also enhance their health, as they stimulate the gallbladder to produce bile, which escorts toxins out of the body and also helps break down fats in the diet. Here, artichoke hearts are combined with chicken, chickpeas, and olives to create a rich, nourishing stew, seasoned with a potpourri of heady and healthful spices, including turmeric, cumin, coriander, and mint. For a wonderful pairing, serve it over Brown Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Ginger .

1 cup canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and mixed with a spritz of lemon juice and a pinch of salt

8 thawed frozen or jarred artichoke hearts (see note), quartered

1/2 cup pitted green olives, such as picholine or manzanilla

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or cilantro

Preparation

Pat the chicken dry and season salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, working in batches if necessary, and cook until well browned on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Decrease the heat to medium. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté until soft and slightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, cinnamon stick, and bay leaf and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in 1/4 cup of the broth to deglaze the pot, stirring to loosen any bits stuck to the pot. Stir in a pinch of salt and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the remaining 1 3/4 cups of broth, the lemon zest, and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice. Decrease the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the chicken, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, and olives and stir gently to combine. Increase the heat to medium-high and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice. Taste; you may want to add another squeeze of lemon juice or pinch of salt. Garnish with the mint.

Cook's Note:

The artichokes hearts can be fresh, frozen and thawed, or packed in water in a jar. Whichever type you use, rinse them well. If using fresh artichoke hearts, add them right after adding the garlic.
Variation: This dish would work well using a firm white fish, such as 1 pound halibut, cut into 4 ounces pieces, in place of the chicken. Begin the recipe by sautéing the onion. Proceed as directed, but substitute vegetable broth, homemade or store-bought, for the chicken broth. Add the fish during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
Who Knew? Digestion begins long before you put food in your mouth. According to nutrition expert Kathie Madonna Swift, MS, RD, LDN, our other senses, notably smell and sight, can jump-start the production of saliva and enzymes that promote better digestion. This so-called cephalic digestion—cephalic being Greek for "in the head"—explains why the appearance and aroma of food goes beyond mere aesthetics. According to Swift, attractive presentation, pleasing odors, and a relaxed mood improve digestion. So do yourself a favor and set the table with attractive dinnerware and light a candle or two.

Rebecca Katz, MS, is an accomplished chef and national speaker who has worked with the country's top wellness physicians, including Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Michael Lerner, Jim Gordon, and Dean Ornish. She is the author of the award-winning Cancer-Fighting Kitchen and One Bite at a Time, as well as director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal and executive chef of the annual Food as Medicine training program sponsored by the Center for Mind Body Medicine at Georgetown MEdical School. She has been featured in the Washington Post, Oprah.com, The Atlantic, Better Homes and Gardens, Associated Press, and other national media. Rebecca lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit RebeccaKatz.com for more information.

Mat Edelson is an award-winning science, health, and sports writer. He is the former anchor/director of the Johns Hopkins Health Newsfeed, a nationally syndicated daily radio program. This is the third book he has co-authored with Rebecca Katz. Edelson resides in Baltimore, Maryland.

Tags:

Leave a Review

Reviews

I love this recipe. Made it last night with double the chickpeas to make it meat free and less labor. I also stirred in some flour after the spices and to make the sauce a bit thicker. Serves well over brown rice or pilaf.

I made this as written and was blown away with the fresh, distinct flavors! The chicken, as others noted, needs some more time (before adding the olives, artichokes and chickpeas in my case). I found the recommended pilaf accompaniment to be the wrong choice - I thought it competed with the chicken rather than complementing it.

I don't think I've ever made an Epicurious recipe as disappointing as this one. First, as everyone has noted, the length of cooking time for the chicken is way too short -- You'd be eating raw chicken. But even adjusted, the finished dish is not only bland and boring but it looks disgusting! The green olives and green artichoke hearts (I used frozen) give the whole dish a greenish tinge. Glad I tried it on my family before serving it to guests. This one is being kicked out of my recipe file. The only benefit is that I had extra thawed artichoke hearts which I sauteed with mushrooms and some salt and pepper. Delicious.

Granted, I'm not much for super-spicy food, but I'm surprised by how many reviewers found this bland. I made it as is except for leaving out the cumin, which I don't like, and putting in additional lemon juice, chickpeas and artichoke hearts. It's really good, and the flavors continue to meld the following day.

The flavors in this dish were excellent, I loved the artichokes, olives and chickpeas. The cooking time as others have said is way off, you must cook for 15+ minutes until chicken is done. I used every ingredient except mint, which I find to be too overbearing in some dishes. I served the dish over white rice w/grilled asparagus...yummy!

The calorie count on this recipe can't be right. It says 1 1/2 lbs of chicken for this recipe and it's supposed to be 4 servings so that's 6 oz of skinless chicken thighs per person. That comes to 356 calories for just the chicken. Not including the olives, chick peas olive oil etc. The actual calorie count using the ingredients list is 575 calories. I love when calories are listed because so many people in this country are trying to crawl out of a hole of bad health but if they are wrong it's sabotaging their efforts.

Just finished making this for tonights dinner. Absolutely delicious. The only change I would make is to halve not quarter the artichokes. I used a jar of TJ artichokes with stems. Also used 2 lbs of chicken thighs and there is plenty of sauce. A winner!

I raise my own chickens so I cut one of mine up, removed most -but not all - skin and used that instead of packaged thighs. Since it had bones, I ended up cooking it much longer than suggested ,which I think was good for melding the flavors.
I think you dont need to add any more salt to this beyond the initial seasoning of the meats, with the olives in there ~its salty enough. The only changes I made were it was a bit too savory for my taste so added diced prunes and apricots at the end and had it over plain rice.
Totally making it again.

I give it three forks only because it required some modification, but the flavors are fantastic! But I did add some more chicken stock and used boneless thighs and a large bone in breast, so I added stock until it half covered the chicken pieces, then let it gently simmer for 30 minutes in my Le Creuset. Maybe the chicken would cook in 3 minutes, but that isn't braising to me, so I let it simmer and it turned out great!

This recipe is terrible. All the good reviews are by cooks that didn't follow it exactly but used their experience to modify it according to their taste and knowledge. Who ever heard of cooking chicken 3 minutes on each side only? And simmering it only 5 minutes in the sauce? This is not nearly as good as some other Epicurious recipes for chicken thighs using similar spices. Very disappointed in Epicurious for publishing this.

This is a delicious recipe but the recipe doesn't give it enough cooking time. The longer this cooks the more the flavors are enhanced. Allow the ingredients as much time as you can. It only gets more flavorful with time.

This is one of those "I don't know what all the fuss is about" reviews. I followed the recipe exactly (unusual for me) except that I increased the cooking time for the chicken, as suggested by the other reviewers. The result was just OK, the flavor definitely needed a boost ( was out of harissa so used a few drops of sriracha in my bowl to kick it up a notch) and remained uninspiring the next day.

Agreed with other reviewers that you'll likely need more time for the chicken to fully cook, especially if you're using bone-in thighs (as I did). Nor did my dish look like the photo -- it all sort of turns yellow thanks to the turmeric.
That said, this was excellent. Pretty minimal prep work as well. This is a good weeknight dinner if you have a few minutes to allow it to cook but don't want to spend a lot of time chopping and standing over the stove. My husband has been dropping hints about how good it was (which is unusual - I'm a pretty good cook but he doesn't seem to care whether it's PB&Js or lobster on the plate in front of him) so I guess this is going into the regular rotation.
A final note: as perhaps you can guess from the cookbook this comes from, this is also really good for you! I've been trying to cook with turmeric and healthy fats more and this is terrific.

I loved this recipe! the only problem is the cooking time stated in the recipe is incorrect, it takes longer than 15 mins to let the chicken simmer in the juices towards the end and be cooked. But I still loved it!!

I love this dish. The one thing that confused the bejeebers out of me is the cooking time. Every time I've followed the recipe my chicken thighs were pink on the inside. It seems like you'd need 30mins at the end instead of 5mins!?? Anyhow, other than that I thought it was very hearty.

I didn't love it. I think I would up the spices a bit it lacked a bit of depth. I made it with 50/50 broth and wine, I might use all wine next time. I am willing to give it another shot as I love the ingredients together.

If I could give this more than 4 forks, I absolutely would. I have made this twice now and have loved it each time. The one thing I do is let the chicken cook in the broth for about an hour (or two). This is a great Sunday afternoon dish. My sister begs me to make this for her. If you're going to let it simmer that long, add the chickpeas and artichokes during the final 30 minutes of cooking.
The flavors are wonderful and remind us of the Moroccan restaurant where we dined at Epcot! :D
This time, I served this over toasted quinoa. Just beautiful. The first time, I made rice. Either works.
For the reviewers who keep saying the flavors didn't "meld", I honestly don't understand. Perhaps they haven't had this kind of cuisine before. These flavors are wonderful together, like a warm hug.